


Attraction

by jiokra



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Coda, First Impressions, First Meetings, M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 00:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jiokra/pseuds/jiokra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Pavel Andreievich Chekov met Hikaru Sulu was the day Nero destroyed Vulcan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Attraction

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the love_bingo prompt "attraction."

Captain Pike had yet to arrive on the bridge. Officers and ensigns waited at their stations with goosebumps and nervous energy. But Chekov was not nervous. His leg jiggled only because his earlier coffee had too much espresso. He set the course for Vulcan as soon as he took his seat, which was several minutes ago. Those minutes felt like hours, days, and seconds, despite logic dictating that feeling could not be. With a Vulcan as First Officer, Chekov wanted to see things logically to build a positive work relationship with Commander Spock.

Chekov stared ahead at the infinite depths of space, rattling off in his thoughts a thesis about the properties of dying stars to pass time. He was about to explain the effects of dying stars on neighboring areas when Sulu let out a long, haggard sigh. It was the first thing Sulu did that drew Chekov’s immediate attention to him.

Chekov regarded him with a quick glance. He stopped rambling about dying stars and thought, clearly enough that he worried he may have spoken aloud, _Lieutenant McKenna is younger than I thought he would be and has a handsome hairline._

His quick glance must have lasted another of those hour long minutes because Sulu turned to him, perturbed by the gratuitous attention.

_Lieutenant McKenna has dark eyes. Like outer space._

Sulu upturned a corner of his lips and nodded at an angle. Chekov did not return the gesture, but his back straightened and eyes went to stare at the bridge of Sulu’s nose. Eventually Sulu tore away, his eyes roaming the controllers rapidly.

Chekov went back staring into space and rambling about dying stars, this time in Russian.

 

* * *

 

Friends, cadets, an entire planet were dead and gone. Earth’s fate rested on the Enterprise’s shoulders. Sulu had a constant headache since his plummet to the red dirt of Vulcan. To combat Nero and save Earth — it was impossible.

“I’m telling you the math doesn’t work,” he repeated, so exhausted, too young.

_“Captain Kirk! Captain Kirk!”_

McCoy threw his hand to the data, having seen endless death since crossing paths with Nero. Death was in the data, too. It was hopeless, unstoppable.

“Based on the fastest course from Vulcan...”

It was Chekov — the seventeen-year-old Russian kid. His accent enthralled Sulu during the mission broadcast, but now he dissociated the accent from the ensign’s findings and listened to the words, which syllable after syllable became a salve to the throbbing in his skull.

“...projected that Nero will travel past Saturn. Like you said, we need to stay invisible to Nero or he'll destroy us. If Mr. Scott can...”

Sulu looked at Chekov and saw mathematics shifting into place.

“...magnetic distortion from the planet's rings will make us invisible to...”

Chekov was focused, determined as he spoke to Kirk. He waved around a stylus, thoughts too fast and too poignant to waste seconds returning it to the proper place. He was a wonder — Sulu could not help but stare, to gaze into those blue eyes, the salve seeping further into him.

“...From there, as long as the drill is not activated we can beam aboard the enemy ship.”

It was unconscious, but Sulu trailed his eyes over Chekov’s body. Lithe, lean, yet possessing the answer to a lethal conundrum. Not only was he a pretty accent, but the bringer hope — possibility, certainty.


End file.
